i next give the remarks of colonel lebertre, who, having broken his parole by escaping from alresford, was captured, and put on the canada hulk at chatham. this was in 1811. he complains bitterly that officers in the hulks were placed on a level with common prisoners, and even with negroes, and says that even the brunswick, which was considered a better hulk than the others, swarmed with vermin, and that although cleanliness was strongly enjoined by the authorities, no allowance for soap was made, no leave given to bathe even in summer, and that fresh clothing was very rarely issued.
but most strongly does he condemn the conduct of the idle curious who would come off from the shore to see the prisoners on the hulks.
‘les femmes même ont montré une indifférence vraiment choquante. on en a vu rester des heures entières les yeux fixés sur le parc où se tiennent les prisonniers, sans que e spectacle de misère qui affecterait si vivement une fran?aise ait fait couler une seule larme; le rire insultant était, au contraire, sur leurs lèvres. les prisonniers n’ont connu qu’un seul exemple d’une femme qui s’évanou?t à la vue du parc.’
in the house of commons on december 26, 1812, during a debate upon the condition of the foreign prisoners of war in england, croker, secretary to the admiralty, declared that he had inspected the hulks at portsmouth, and had found the prisoners thereon ‘comfortable and happy and well provided with amusement’, and sir george warrender said much the same about chatham.
colonel lebertre remarks on this:
‘men sensual and hardened by pleasures! you who in full parliament outrage your victims and declare that the prisoners are happy! would you know the full horror of their condition, come without giving notice beforehand; dare to descend before daylight into the tombs in which you 76bury living creatures who are human beings like yourselves; try to breathe for one minute the sepulchral vapour which these unfortunates breathe for many years, and which sometimes suffocates them; see them tossing in their hammocks, assailed by thousands of insects, and wooing in vain the sleep which could soften for one moment their sufferings!’
he describes, as did the baron de bonnefoux, the raffalés who sold all their clothes, and went naked in obedience to one of the laws of their camaraderie, who slept huddled together for warmth in ranks which changed position by words of command. he says that some of the prisoners were so utterly miserable that they accepted pay from the authorities to act as spies upon their fellows. he describes the rude courts of justice held, and instances how one man who stole five louis received thirty blows with a rope’s end; he refers to the terrible vice prevalent upon the prison ships, and remarks that ‘life on them is the touchstone of a man’s character’.
when he arrived on the canada there was no vacant sleeping place, but for 120 francs he bought a spot in the middle of the battery, not near a port, ‘just big enough to hold his dead body’. still, he admits that the officers treated him with as much consideration as their orders would allow.
on august 11, 1812, in response to many urgent remonstrances from influential prisoners against the custom of herding officers and men together, all the officers on the hulks at chatham were transferred to the lower or thirty-six gun battery of the brunswick, in number 460. here they had to submit to the same tyranny as on the other ships, except that they were allowed to have wine if they could afford to pay six francs a bottle for it, which few of them could do. later, general pillet and other ‘broke paroles’, on account of the insulting letters they wrote on the subject of being allowed rum or other spirits, were confined to the regulation small beer. the transport office wrote: ‘indeed, when the former unprincipled conduct of these officers is considered, with their present combination to break through the rules, obviously tending to insurrection and a consequent renewal of bloodshed, we think it proper that they should immediately be removed to separate prison ships.’
77we now come to the most rabid of the frenchmen, general pillet. pillet was severely wounded and taken prisoner at vimiero in 1808, and—in violation, he says, of the second article of the convention of cintra, which provided that no french should be considered prisoners of war, but should be taken out of portugal with arms, &c., by british ships—was brought to england, with many other officers. he was at once allowed to be on parole at alresford, but, not considering himself bound by any parole terms, attempted to escape with paolucci, captain of the friedland captured in 1808 by the standard and active, but was recaptured and sent to the dép?t at norman cross. here his conduct was so reprehensible that he was sent to the brunswick at chatham. from the brunswick he tried to escape in a vegetable boat, but this attempt failed, and it is to the subsequent rigour of his treatment that must be attributed his vitriolic hatred of britain.
general pillet is of opinion that the particular branch of the navy told off for duty on the prison ships was composed of the most miserable scum of english society; of men who have either been accomplices in or guilty of great crimes, and who had been given by the magistrates the alternative of being marines or of being hanged!
he speaks of the chatham hulks as abominably situated near foul marshes—which is undeniably true. the quarters of the prisoners were in no place high enough for a man to stand upright; fourteen little ports, unglazed but barred, of seventeen inches square, on each side of the deck, gave all the light and air obtainable. when they were shut they were fast shut, so that during the winter months the prisoners breathed foul air for sixteen hours a day. hence they went naked, and so, when the cold air was admitted the results were fatal. the overcrowding of the hulks, says pillet, was part of the great government design of killing the prisoners, and asserts that even a london newspaper, quoting the opinion of a medical board in london, said that the strongest of men, after six years’ life on the hulks, must be physically wrecked for life.
the hammock space allowed was six feet in length, but swinging reduced them to four and a half. newcomers were often obliged to sleep on the bare deck, as there was no other vacant space, and there was no distinction of ranks. however, 78officers were generally able to buy spaces, upon which practice pillet remarks:
‘c’est une misérable spéculation pour un pauvre prisonnier affamé; il consent à vendre sa place afin de se procurer un peu plus de vivre pendant quelques jours, et afin de ne pas mourir de faim il accélère la destruction de sa santé, et se réduit dans cette horrible situation à coucher sur un plancher ruisselant d’eau, l’évaporisation des transpirations forcées qui a lieu dans ce séjour d’angoisses et de la mort.’
he declares that the air is so foul when the decks are shut up that the candles will not burn, and he has heard even the guards call for help when they have opened the hatches and the air has escaped. the food he describes as execrable, so that the two boats which had the monopoly of coming alongside to sell butter, tea, coffee, sugar, potatoes, candles, and tobacco at a price one-third above that on land, did a roaring trade. the general reply to complaints was that any food was good enough for french dogs.
if they were badly fed, says pillet, they were worse clothed. nominally they received every eighteen months a coat, waistcoat, breeches, two pairs of stockings, two shirts, a pair of shoes, and a cap. he declares he can prove that the prisoners did not receive this complete rig-out once in four years, and that if a prisoner had any rags of his own, or received any money, he got no clothes! what clothes they did get were so badly made that they generally had to be re-made. he says that at portsmouth, where the hulk agent woodriff was at any rate conscientious enough to issue the clothes on the due dates, his secretary would buy back the shirts at one shilling each, and so, as government paid three shillings each for them, and there were at portsmouth, forton, and portchester some twelve thousand prisoners on the average, his ‘pickings’ must have been considerable!
in a note he gives the instance of the reply of commander mansell, who commanded the prison-ship police at chatham in 1813, when the fact that not one quarter of the clothing due to the prisoners had been delivered to them, was proved clearly: ‘i am afraid it is too true, but i have nothing to do with it. i cannot help it.’
79from the carnet d’étapes du sergt.-maj. beaudouin, 31e demi-brigade de ligne, i take the following account of life on the hulks.
‘on october 31st, 1809, beaudouin left valleyfield where he had been confined since june 10th, 1804, and came on board the bristol hulk at chatham. at this time the hulks were the glory, three decker, bristol, crown prince, buckingham, sampson (mauvais sujets), rochester, southwick, irresistible, bahama (danes), and trusty, hospital ship, holding in all 6,550 prisoners.’
beaudouin says:
‘the difference between the land prisons and the hulks is very marked. there is no space for exercise, prisoners are crowded together, no visitors come to see them, and we are like forsaken people. there is no work but the corvées to get our water, and to scrape in winter and wash in summer our sleeping place. in a word, only to see them is to be horrified. the anchorage at chatham is bounded by low and ill-cultured shores; the town is two miles away—a royal dockyard where there is much ship-building. at the side of it is a fine, new, well-armed fort, and adjoining it a little town named rochester, where there are two windmills, and two more in chatham. by the london road, three miles off, there are four windmills. the people of this country are not so pleasant and kind as in scotland, in fact i believe “the sex” is not so beautiful.’
very soon the bristol was condemned and its prisoners transferred to the fyen, and at the same time the rochester and southwick were replaced by the canada and nassau. on the fyen were 850 prisoners, but during 1810 and 1811 a great many chatham prisoners were sent to norman cross and scotland.
beaudouin comments thus bitterly:
‘it is unfortunate for me that my circle of acquaintances is so limited, and that i cannot therefore make sufficiently known the crimes of a nation which aims at the supremacy in europe. it poses as an example among nations, but there are no brigands or savages as well versed in wickedness as it is. day by day they practise their cruelties upon us, unhappy prisoners. that is where they are cowardly fighters! against defenceless men! half the time they give us provisions which the very dogs refuse. half the time the bread is not baked, and is only good to bang against a wall; the meat 80looks as if it had been dragged in the mud for miles. twice a week we get putrid salt food, that is to say, herrings on wednesday, cod-fish on saturday. we have several times refused to eat it, and as a result got nothing in its place, and at the same time are told that anything is good enough for a frenchman. therein lies the motive of their barbarity.’
a short description of the terrible sampson affair is given elsewhere (p. 93), but as beaudouin was evidently close by at the time, his more detailed account is perhaps worth quoting.
‘on the sampson the prisoners refused to eat the food. the english allowed them to exist two days without food. the prisoners resolved to force the english to supply them with eatable provisions. rather than die of hunger they all went on deck and requested the captain either to give them food or to summon the commandant of the anchorage. the brute replied that he would not summon the commandant, and that they should have no other provisions than those which had been served out to them two days previously. the prisoners refused to touch them. the “brigand” then said: “as you refuse to have this food, i command you to return below immediately or i will fire upon you.” the prisoners could not believe that he really meant what he said and refused to go below.
‘hardly had they made this declaration, when the captain gave the word to the guard to fire, which was at once done, the crowd being fired upon. the poor wretches, seeing that they were being fired upon without any means of defence, crowded hastily down, leaving behind only the killed and wounded—fifteen killed and some twenty wounded! then the captain hoisted the mutiny signal which brought reinforcements from the other ships, and all were as jubilant as if a great victory had been won.
‘i do not believe that any frenchman lives who hates this nation more than i do; and all i pray for is that i may be able to revenge myself on it before i die.’
beaudouin wrote a poem of 514 alexandrines, entitled:
les prisons d’albion.
ou la malheureuse situation des prisonniers en angleterre.
bellum nobis haec mala fecit.
i give in the original the first and last ‘chants’ of this embittered production.
81i
‘tu veux, mon cher ami, que ranimant ma verve
je te peigne sans fard, sans crainte, et sans réserve,
le tableau des tourmens et de l’affliction
sous lesquels sont plongés les captifs d’albion.
j’obéis à la voix, et ma muse craintive,
entonnant à regret la trompette plaintive,
va chanter sur des tons, hélas! bien douloureux,
les maux, les maux cuisans de bien des malheureux.’
lxiv
‘je t’ai dépeint sans fard l’exacte vérité,
tels sont les maux cruels de la captivité.
o vous qui de bonheur go?tez en paix les charmes,
si vous lisez mes vers, donnez-nous quelques larmes;
s’ils n’impriment chez vous une tendre affection,
vous êtes, plus que nous, dignes de compassion!’
speaking of the horrible moral effects of the bad treatment he says:
‘the ruin of their comrades and the depravities which were daily committed in public, impressed right thinking men with so frightful force that this place means a double suffering to them.’
in 1812 it was reported that a batch of incurables would be sent home to france, and beaudouin resolved to get off with them by making himself ill. he starved himself into such a condition that he was sent into hospital, but the doctor would not pass him as an incurable. he swallowed tobacco juice, and at last, in a miserable state, turned up with the candidates. then it was announced that no privateersmen, but only regular seamen, would be sent. beaudouin, being a soldier, and being among the privateersmen, was in despair. however, a kindly english doctor pitied him, cured him of his self-inflicted illness, and got him leave to go.
on june 2, 1812, he was ready to sail, but was searched first for letters. luckily none were discovered, although he had sixty sewn between the soles of his shoes, and 200 in a box with a double bottom. he sailed on june 4, the king’s birthday—that day eight years previously he had arrived at greenock amidst the royal salutes—arrived at morlaix, and so home 82to boiscommun (loiret), canton of beaune-la-rolande, arrondissement of pithiviers.
the following experiences of an american prisoner of war are from the journal of a young man of massachusetts, (1816), who was a surgeon, by name benjamin waterhouse, captured at sea in may 1813, and confined on melville island, halifax, whence he was transported to chatham, and then to dartmoor. the account is interesting as showing the very marked difference between the american and the french prisoners of war, and is otherwise remarkable for the hatred and contempt of the writer for britons in general and for scotsmen in particular, entire pages being devoted to their vilification. waterhouse, with a hundred of his countrymen, was shipped to england on the regulus, and his complaints are bitter about the shameful treatment on board—the filth, the semi-starvation, the vermin, the sleeping on stone ballast, the lack of air owing to the only opening to the lower deck being a hatchway two feet square, the brutal rule of allowing only two prisoners to go on deck at a time, and the presence in their midst of the only latrine. the captain, a scotsman, would only yield to constant petitions and remonstrances so far as to sanction the substitution of iron bars for the hatchway.
after a miserable voyage the prisoners reached portsmouth, and, starved, vermin-eaten, and in rags, were shipped off to the crown prince, captain hutchison, at chatham, where were thirteen other prison ships and some 1,200 americans. on this hulk, waterhouse says, they fared ‘as well as could be expected ... not that we fared so well as british prisoners fare in america’, the daily allowance being half a pound of beef, one gill of barley, one and a half pounds of bread, on five days of the week, and on the others one pound cod fish, and one pound potatoes, or one pound smoked herring, porter and beer being purchasable. he dilates bitterly on the extraordinary lack of humanity in john bull, as evidenced by the hard fare of soldiers and sailors, the scoundrelism of some officers, especially those of the provisioning departments, and, above all, the shockingly cruel punishments in the army and navy. during the daytime, he says, life on a prison ship was not so unpleasant, but at night the conditions were very bad—especially as 83american prisoners were more closely watched and guarded than were men of other nationalities. ‘the french were always busy in some little mechanical employ, or in gaming, or in playing the fool, but the americans seemed to be on the rack of invention to escape.’
amongst themselves, the americans elected by voting, every four weeks, a president, and twelve committee men, whose functions were to make wholesome laws, to define crimes and award punishments, and particularly to insist upon personal cleanliness. the punishments were fines, whippings, and in very extreme cases the black hole. the volubility and the eloquence of the orators at these committee meetings very much impressed the british officers. the frenchmen, waterhouse says, were almost to a man gamblers:
‘their skill and address at these games of apparent hazard were far superior to the americans. they seemed calculated for gamesters; their vivacity, their readiness, and their everlasting professions of friendship were nicely adapted to inspire confidence in the unsuspecting american jack tar, who has no legerdemain about him. most of the prisoners were in the way of earning a little money; but almost all of them were deprived of it by the french gamesters. our people stood no chance with them, but were commonly stripped of every cent, whenever they set out seriously to play with them. how often have i seen a frenchman capering, singing, and grinning in consequence of his stripping one of our sailors of all his money; ... the officers among them are the most adroit gamesters. we have all tried hard to respect them; but there is something in their conduct so much like swindling, that i hardly know what to say of them. when they knew that we had received money for the work we had been allowed to perform, they were very attentive, and complaisant and flattering.... they would come round and say: “ah! boston fine town, very pretty—cape cod fine town, very fine! town of rhode island superb! bristol ferry very pretty! general washington très grand homme, general madison brave homme!” with these expressions and broken english, they would accompany, with their monkey tricks, capering and grinning and patting us on the shoulder, with: “the americans are brave men—fight like frenchmen;” and by their insinuating manners allure our men once more to their wheels of fortune and billiard-tables, and as sure as they did, so sure did they strip them of all their money.’
84waterhouse adds that ‘if an american, having lost all his money, wanted to borrow of a frenchman under promise of repayment, the latter would say: “ah mon ami! i am sorry, very sorry, indeed; it is la fortune de guerre. if you have lost your money you must win it back again; that is the fashion in my country—we no lend, that is not the fashion!”...
‘there were here some danes as well as dutchmen. it is curious to observe their different looks and manners.... here we see the thick-skulled plodding dane, making a wooden dish; or else some of the most ingenious making a clumsy ship; while others submitted to the dirtiest drudgery of the hulk, for money; and there we see a dutchman, picking to pieces tarred ropes ... or else you see him lazily stowed away in some corner, with his pipe ... while here and there and every where, you find a lively singing frenchman, working in hair, or carving out of a bone, a lady, a monkey, or the central figure of the crucifixion! among the specimens of american ingenuity i most admired their ships, which they built from three to five feet long.... had not the french proved themselves to be a very brave people, i should have doubted it by what i have observed of them on board the prison-ship. they would scold, quarrel and fight, by slapping each other’s chops with the flat hand, and cry like so many girls.... perhaps such a man as napoleon bonaparte could make any nation courageous.’
very bitter were the complaints of the americans about the supine and indifferent attitude towards them of beasley, their agent, who was supposed to keep constant watch and ward over the interests of his unfortunate countrymen. he lived in london, thirty-two miles away, paid no attention to complaints forwarded to him, and was heartily hated and despised. once he paid a visit to the hulks in gillingham creek, but seemed anxious to avoid all interviews and questionings, and left amidst a storm of hisses and jeers.
waterhouse dwells severely on the fact that the majority of the americans on the crown prince and the other hulks were not men who had been fairly taken in open combat on the high seas, but men who had been impressed into the british navy from american merchant ships previous to the war between the two countries and who, upon the declaration of war, had given themselves up as prisoners of war, being naturally unwilling to fight against their own country, but who had been kept prisoners 85instead of being exchanged. this had been the british practice since 1755, but after the war of independence it had ceased. all the same the british authorities had insisted upon the right of search for british subjects on american ships, and to the arbitrary and forcible exercise of this ‘right’ was very largely owing the war of 1812.
waterhouse admits that on the whole he was treated as well on the crown prince as were the british prisoners at salem or boston. recruiting sergeants for the british service came on board and tried to tempt americans with a bounty of sixteen guineas, but they were only chaffed and sent off.
later on, 500 more prisoners arrived from america in a pitiable condition, mostly maryland and pennsylvania men—‘colonel boerstler’s men who had been deceived, decoyed and captured near beaver dams on january 23rd, 1813’. with their cruel treatment on board the nemesis on their trans-atlantic voyage, waterhouse contrasts favourably the kind treatment of the prisoners brought by the poictiers 74, captain beresford, after his capture of the american wasp and her prize the frolic.
the author gives a glaring instance of provision cheating. by the terms of his contract, if the bread purveyor failed to send off to the hulks fresh bread when the weather was favourable, he forfeited half a pound of bread to each man. for a long time the prisoners were kept in ignorance of this agreement, but they found it out, and on the next occasion when the forfeit was due, claimed it. commodore osmore refused it, and issued hard ship’s bread. the prisoners refused to take it. osmore was furious, and ordered his marines to drive the prisoners, now in open mutiny, below. a disturbance was imminent, but the americans remained firm, and the commodore gave way.
the american prisoners took in newspapers, as they were mostly intelligent and well-educated men, but paid dearly for them.
the papers were the statesman, star, bell’s weekly messenger, and whig. the statesman cost 28s. a month, plus 16s. a month for conveyance on board.
as the weather grew milder, matters were more comfortable 86on board until small-pox broke out. vaccination was extensively employed, but many prisoners refused to submit to it, not from unbelief in its efficacy, but from misery and unwillingness to live! then came typhus, in april 1814. there were 800 prisoners and 100 british on the ship. the hospital ship being crowded, part of the crown prince was set apart for patients, with the result that the mortality was very high. still beasley, the american agent, never came near the ship to inquire into affairs.
the gambling evil had now assumed such proportions that the americans determined to put it down. in spite of the vigorous opposition of the frenchmen, the ‘wheels of fortune’ were abolished, but the billiard-tables remained, it being urged by the frenchmen that the rate of a halfpenny per game was not gambling, and that the game afforded a certain amount of exercise. there remained, however, a strong pro-gambling party among the americans, and these men insisted upon continuing, and the committee sent one of them to the black hole without a trial. this angered his mates; a meeting was held, violent speeches were made in which the names of hampden, sidney, and wilkes were introduced, and he was brought out. he was no ordinary rough tar, but a respectable well-educated new england yeoman, with the ‘gift of the gab’; and the results of his harangue were that the committee admitted their error, and he was released.
finally the billiard-tables were abolished; a great improvement was soon manifest among the captives, education was fostered, and classes formed, although a few rough characters still held aloof, and preferred skylarking, and the slanging and chaffing of passers-by in boats on the river.
in may 1814 four men went on deck and offered themselves for british service. two got away, but two were caught by their mates, tried, and sentenced to be marked with indian ink on their foreheads with the letter t (= traitor). the frenchmen were now being shipped home. some of them had been prisoners since 1803. waterhouse comments upon the appalling ignorance among english people in the educated class of all matters american, and quotes the instance of the lady who, wishing to buy some of the articles made by the american 87prisoners, was confronted by the difficulty of ‘not knowing their language’!
waterhouse describes the surroundings of the crown prince thus:
‘the medway is a very pleasant river ... its banks are rich and beautiful.... the picture from the banks of the river to the top of the landscape is truly delightful, and beyond any thing i ever saw in my own country, and this is owing to the hedges.... nearly opposite our doleful prison stands the village of gillingham, adorned with a handsome church; on the side next chatham stands the castle, defended by more than an hundred cannon.... this place is noted for making sulphate of iron.... near to this village of gillingham is a neat house with a good garden, and surrounded by trees, which was bequeathed by a lady to the oldest boatswain in the royal navy.’
waterhouse complains strongly of the immorality on board: ‘such a sink of vice, i never saw, or ever dreamt of, as i have seen here,’ he relates a daring escape. a hole was cut through the ship’s side near the stern, the copper being removed all round except on one side so as to lap over and be opened or closed at will. sixteen men escaped through this, and swam ashore one dark night, the sentry on duty close by being allured away by the singing of droll songs and the passing of a can of grog. at the numbering of the prisoners next morning, the correct tale was made up by the passing through a hole cut in the bulk-head of sixteen men who had been already counted. at another attempt two men slipped into the water; one of them got tired and benumbed with cold, and turned back. the sentry heard him breathing and said: ‘ah! here is a porpoise, and i’ll stick him with my bayonet,’ and only the crying out of the poor would-be refugee saved him. the ship’s officers on examining the hole were amazed, and one of them remarked that he did not believe that the devil himself could keep these fellows in hell if they made up their minds to get out. the next day the other poor chap was seen lying dead on the beach, and to the disgust of the prisoners was allowed to remain there two days before he was buried.
commodore osmore was always the butt of the american 88prisoners. a yarn got about that he had procured a sheep from a farmer ashore without paying for it. thereupon his appearance was the signal for a chorus of ‘baa! baa!’ he was mad with rage, and ordered the port through which the insulting chorus had been made to be closed. the americans forced it open. the marines drove the prisoners from the fo’c’sle into the ‘pound’. as more ‘baa!’s resounded, they were driven below decks, and all market boats were stopped from approaching the ship, so that for two days the prisoners were without extra food. however, captain hutchison instituted an inquiry, and peace was arranged.
in june 1814 three men escaped in a water tank. others would have followed, but one of the former party had stupidly written an ironical letter of thanks to captain hutchison, in which he described the method of escape.
a daring escape was made from the irresistible in broad daylight. four americans saw a jolly-boat made fast to the accommodation-ladder under the charge of a sentry. one of them was a big, strong indian of the narragansett tribe from rhode island. the four men dashed down, seized the sentry, disarmed him, threw him into the boat, and pulled off. they were fired at from all sides, and boats put off from all the ships to chase them, but only one man was wounded. they reached shore and struck across the fields, which were soon covered by people in chase from the farms and brickfields, who soon ran all the prisoners down except the indian, who out-distanced the prisoners, and would have got away had he not sprained his ankle in getting over a fence, and even then, as he was sitting down, none of the country folk would approach him, until the marines came up. the chase had been closely followed with great excitement on the ship, and on the arrival of the captured men alongside, they were loudly cheered, their healths drunk, and the indian at once dubbed ‘baron trenck’. said the boys: ‘if it took 350 british seamen and marines to capture four yankees, how many british sailors and marines would it take to catch ten thousand of us?’
two scotsmen waterhouse excepted from his condemnation of their nation: galbraith, the master-at-arms, and barnes, the sailing-master, who was wont to reprove them for misdeeds, 89saying: ‘i expect better things of you as americans, i consider you all in a different light from that of a d—d set of french monkeys.’
the british officers were clearly uneasy about their custody of the americans, and felt it to be an ignoble business. said they: ‘the yankees seemed to take a pleasure in making us uneasy, and in exciting our apprehensions of their escape, and then they laugh and make themselves merry at our anxiety. in fact, they have systematized the art of tormenting.’
the government, too, appreciated ‘the difficult task which the miserable officers of this miserable medway fleet had to perform’. it did not wish them to be more rigorous, yet knew that more rigour was necessary. rumours got about that in desperation the government was about to transfer all the americans from the prison ships to dartmoor—the place which, it was said, had been lost by the duchess of devonshire at a game of hazard to the prince of wales, who determined to utilize it profitably by making a prison there.
the national festival on july 4 was duly celebrated on board the two prison ships crown prince and nassau. an additional allowance of drink was sanctioned, but the american flag was only allowed to be flown as high as the ‘railings’. there were drums and pipes which played yankee doodle on the fo’c’sle: cheers were exchanged between the ships, and the toast of the day was drunk in english porter. there was, of course, much speechifying, especially on the nassau, where one orator declaimed for half an hour, and another recited a poem, ‘the impressment of an american sailor boy’, which is too long to be quoted, but which, says our author, brought tears into many eyes. all passed off quietly, and acknowledgement is made of the ‘extraordinary good behaviour of all the british officers and men on board the crown prince‘.
although commodore osmore was unpopular with the americans, his charming wife exercised a good influence in the ship by her amiability and appreciation of the fact that american prisoners were not all a gang of vagabonds; and gradually a better feeling developed between captors and captured.
90in august 1814 the news of the transfer to dartmoor was confirmed, and, says waterhouse, was received with regret on the crown prince—the ship being ‘actually viewed with feelings of attachment’. the last scene, however, was marked by a disturbance.
thirty prisoners had been told off to prepare for embarkation on a tender. at the appointed hour no tender appeared, and the embarkation was put off. but all hammocks had been packed, and upon application to osmore for hammocks, the prisoners were told to shift as they could for the night, as the tender would arrive early the next morning, and it was not worth while to unpack the hammocks. upon hearing this the prisoners resolved that if they were to be deprived of their night’s rest, nobody else should have any. so they harnessed themselves to benches, and ran about the deck, shouting and singing, and bumping the benches against everything which would make a noise, jammed down the marines’ crockery and brought into play every article which could add to the pandemonium. osmore sent a marine down to quiet them. the marine returned, dishevelled, and disarmed. osmore was furious. ‘i’ll be d—d if i do not fire on them!’ he roared: ‘fire, and be d—d,’ was the response. as it was useless to attempt to quiet them, and to fire would have been criminal, the commodore retired, and did what he could to sleep amid the infernal din of bumping benches, jangling metal, shouts and songs, which lasted throughout the night.
when the tender took the men off in the morning it was to the accompaniment of a great roar of ‘baa! baa!’ as a parting shot.
the remainder of the crown prince americans were transferred to the bahama on october 15, 1814. here they found 300 of their countrymen of the vicious, baser sort, gamblers all, and without any men of influence to order them. danes occupied the main deck and americans the lower. jail fever had played havoc among danes and americans—no less than 84 of the latter being buried in the marshes in three months.
next to the bahama lay the belliqueux hulk, full of harmless and dull scandinavians, so that the captain thereof, having nothing to do in his own ship, started to spy upon the doings 91aboard the bahama, and succeeded in getting a marine punished for smuggling liquor. next day, the rations were fish and potatoes. the americans collected all their potatoes, and watched for the appearance of the belliqueux commander for his spying promenade on his quarter deck, the result being that when he did appear, he was greeted with such a hail of potatoes that he was fain to beat an undignified retreat. soon he came off in his boat to complain to commander wilson of the bahama of his treatment. wilson, a passionate, hot-tempered, but just and humane man, said he was very sorry, but could do nothing, so back the discomfited officer had to go, pelted with more potatoes and some coals. said wilson: ‘these americans are the sauciest dogs i ever saw; but d—n me if i can help liking them, nor can i ever hate men who are so much like ourselves.’
in october 1814 two hundred americans were sent to plymouth, where they were at once boarded by an army of loose women.
with waterhouse’s experiences at dartmoor i deal in the chapter devoted to that prison.
